Tag Archives: childhood obesity

The other day I heard a commercial as I was listening to the radio. It’s aired quite often, so I didn’t pay much mind to it. The ad pertained to obesity. Something about the large percentage of children that are overweight.

Well, I had heard public service announcements like these thousands of times. They are always the same. They don’t ask for anyone to donate time or money to the cause; they just seek to “inform” us morons that our children are all whales.

Here’s the kicker. About an hour later, on the same radio station, I heard another “public service” ad. No, it wasn’t another announcement of how fat our children are. This one was on childhood hunger.

It explained that too many children are going to bed hungry. Evidently, it too is an epidemic.

Okay, I thought, what the heck! I literally laughed out loud at hearing it.

My next thought was of the management at the radio station and how they must not monitor the stuff. Why would they? I’m sure these PSA’s help pay the bills.

Now, I can’t be the only one that hears these ads and sees the irony. It’s comedy gold.

So which one is it? Are our kids big fat Gila monsters or are they starving little waifs like Oliver twist? “Please, sir, may I have some more?” (The previous statement has more impact when said with an English accent. Just a tip.)

Is it possible that these two epidemics are occurring simultaneously? Like we see in films depicting medieval England – where the Royals are behind the gates gorging themselves and the serf class are dying in the streets, eating dirt sandwiches, without the bread.

I decided to go online and watch a few ads and read some reports on both hunger and obesity in America. A few of the hunger ads are as follows:

One report claims that one in five in the U.S. is struggling with hunger. Of course the ads focused on “the children”. Another claimed that: “when a government and a model focuses on the well-being of its people, obviously it’s children would be a priority, but unfortunately the United States is not a country with that kind of model.”

George Snufullupigus of ABC news reported that one in six Americans and one in four children start their day not knowing if they will have the food they need.

A feeding America ad, with the help of some Hollywood stars, asked if someone could tell the hungry where their next meal would come from?

Okay, I get it. There’s hunger in America and its epidemic.

But at the same time other experts are telling us that obesity is becoming the number one health problem in America. And of course, as with the hungry, it’s all about “the children”.

Michelle Obama claims obesity is one of the most serious threats to a child’s future. She also claims it is an epidemic. (yeah, it’s a distant number two to her husband’s policies.)

One study estimated that adolescents visit fast food restaurants approximately twice a week.

The Children’s Defense Fund claims that nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese.

Okay, enough is enough. So I ask again, which is it? There is no way that one in four children can be hungry and one in three are big fatties.

Maybe it’s that the children are so fat they are just always hungry. Or maybe it’s that both these highly exaggerated and exploitive claims are a crock.

As it is with most of lefty causes, these ads and reports are intended to do but one thing. That is to guilt people into charging the government to further control our behavior.

Antibiotics Can Make Kids Fat

Researchers are exploring a new culprit in the ever-growing childhood obesity epidemic: rampant use of antibiotic drugs to treat minor childhood illness.

For decades, farmers have been doping commercial livestock with antibiotics because the drugs increase, by about 15 percent, the weight of cattle, pigs and chickens.

A new study from the International Journal of Obesity suggests that treating infants with antibiotics during the first several months of their lives could have the same fattening effects. Babies that were given antibiotics within the first six months of life were more likely to be overweight as toddlers than those not exposed to the drugs. The study couldn’t prove beyond the shadow of doubt, however, that antibiotics were the only cause of weight gain.

A similar study examined the medical records of children born in the U.K. in the early 1990s and also found that infants given antibiotics within the first six months of life were more likely to be overweight or obese as toddlers when compared to babies not exposed to the drugs.

Other studies on the effects of antibiotics on the gut microbes of lab mice might explain the reason behind the weight gain. Researchers found that in the mice, antibiotics changed the makeup of gut bacteria that are instrumental in helping the body break down food and store proper amounts of fat.